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The Retreat
Bestselling novelist David Bergen follows his Scotiabank Giller Prize—winning The Time in Between with a haunting novel about the clash of generations — and cultures.
In 1973, outside of Kenora, Ontario, Raymond Seymour, an eighteen-year-old Ojibway boy, is taken by a local policeman to a remote island and left for dead.
A year later, the Byrd family arrives in Kenora. They have come to stay at “the Retreat,” a commune run by the self-styled guru Doctor Amos. The Doctor is an enigmatic man who spouts bewildering truisms, and who bathes naked every morning in the pond at the edge of the Retreat while young Everett Byrd watches from the bushes. Lizzy, the eldest of the Byrd children, cares for her younger brothers Fish and William, and longs for what she cannot find at the Retreat. When Lizzy meets Raymond, everything changes, and Lizzy comes to understand the real difference between Raymond’s world and her own. A tragedy and a love story, the novel moves towards a conclusion that is both astonishing and heartbreaking.
Set during the summer of the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park in Kenora, The Retreat is a finely nuanced, deeply felt novel that tells the story of the complicated love between a white girl and a native boy, and of a family on the verge of splintering forever. It is also a story of the bond between two brothers who were separated in childhood, and whose lives and fates intertwine ten years later.
A brilliant portrait of a time and a place, The Retreat confirms Bergen’s reputation as one of the country’s most gifted and compelling writers.
In 1973, outside of Kenora, Ontario, Raymond Seymour, an eighteen-year-old Ojibway boy, is taken by a local policeman to a remote island and left for dead.
A year later, the Byrd family arrives in Kenora. They have come to stay at “the Retreat,” a commune run by the self-styled guru Doctor Amos. The Doctor is an enigmatic man who spouts bewildering truisms, and who bathes naked every morning in the pond at the edge of the Retreat while young Everett Byrd watches from the bushes. Lizzy, the eldest of the Byrd children, cares for her younger brothers Fish and William, and longs for what she cannot find at the Retreat. When Lizzy meets Raymond, everything changes, and Lizzy comes to understand the real difference between Raymond’s world and her own. A tragedy and a love story, the novel moves towards a conclusion that is both astonishing and heartbreaking.
Set during the summer of the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park in Kenora, The Retreat is a finely nuanced, deeply felt novel that tells the story of the complicated love between a white girl and a native boy, and of a family on the verge of splintering forever. It is also a story of the bond between two brothers who were separated in childhood, and whose lives and fates intertwine ten years later.
A brilliant portrait of a time and a place, The Retreat confirms Bergen’s reputation as one of the country’s most gifted and compelling writers.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
9 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
David Bergen
27 books101 followersBorn in Port Edward, British Columbia, author David Bergen worked as a writer and high school English teacher in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before gaining a great deal of recognition in Canada when his novel The Time In Between won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards. The novel also received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews and was longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 2, 2011
There are two distinct story lines here and I wondered if they would have been more powerful if developed as two separate novels. In keeping with the title of the novel, we are introduced to seventeen year old Lizzy and her family and their stay at the Retreat for her mother’s “rehabilitation.” Weaving through is a more interesting story of two Native Indian brothers fighting for survival and validation in a white man’s world, and failing.
Based around an event when the Ojibway occupied the Anicinabe Park in Kenora, we get to spend the summer of 1974 at the Retreat with the Byrd family: Lizzy, the doer and surrogate mother to her younger siblings, her fourteen year old brother Everett grappling with his blossoming sexuality that could tip him in either direction orientation-wise, Mrs. Byrd, the absentee mother, who is constantly looking to discover herself even if it means having trysts with the Retreat’s self-styled guru Dr Amos, Mr. Byrd who thinks the Retreat is a big joke but will do anything to keep his wife and family intact, and four-year old Fish, the youngest child, who likes to wander off and get lost and bring the family face-to-face with its deepest fissures. Surrounding the Byrds is a motley cast of visitors, permanent and transitory, to the Retreat, seeking wisdom from the enigmatic doctor on how to cope in the real world. There is even a crippled writer, Harris, who befriends the children, whose wife is making out with another guest while he likens himself to “a dull moth banging at an unlit lantern.”
On the other side of the spectrum is Raymond, the eighteen year old Ojibway boy who likes white girls and constantly gets into trouble with prejudiced law enforcement officers as a result of this fatal attraction. Raymond snags his girls by being indifferent and remote, partly due to his fear of being arrested, but that cocktail is irresistible to his more privileged girlfriends from the other side of the tracks. His brother Nelson is more outgoing, but as he was once taken away from home and adopted by a white family, Nelson is more cynical about the plight of the Native Indian. Both are likely candidates to be drawn into the Ojibway occupation of the park that is to follow before the summer ends.
Viewed from the perspectives of the children, we see that the adults are all screwed up and are poor role models for their progeny. As Lizzy observes, “most adults wanted what they couldn’t or didn’t have, and they would hurt people to get it.” Yet the sexuality is downplayed while the sensuality is notched up – there is a lot of touching and smelling going on, especially among the young ones.
I found the style distinct: sparse prose, pronouns dropped, dialogue “told” or narrated, and sentences ending on prepositions (the English teacher’s nightmare!)
What disappointed me was that there was a lot of waiting between events and I felt that I had spent my whole summer at this Retreat by the time I ended the novel. There are missed opportunities for drama between Raymond and the cops, when Fish goes “walkabout,” and when Lizzie wanders around in the woods or in town on her own, but they are all downplayed, resolved quickly or ignored. I wonder if that is something about writing a Canadian literary novel and preferring bland. And despite the major portion of the book being dedicated to the inhabitants at the Retreat and to Lizzy’s coming of age, the novel ends with a more tense sequence of events involving Raymond and Nelson. I guess, after all the waiting, some tension was called for, but in the presentation it felt like two different stories were trying to cohabit within the same book, almost like the Indian boy and his white girlfriend trying to find a life together and failing. In that sense, I wondered whether The Retreat was a misnomer and if Two Different Worlds may have been more apt?
Based around an event when the Ojibway occupied the Anicinabe Park in Kenora, we get to spend the summer of 1974 at the Retreat with the Byrd family: Lizzy, the doer and surrogate mother to her younger siblings, her fourteen year old brother Everett grappling with his blossoming sexuality that could tip him in either direction orientation-wise, Mrs. Byrd, the absentee mother, who is constantly looking to discover herself even if it means having trysts with the Retreat’s self-styled guru Dr Amos, Mr. Byrd who thinks the Retreat is a big joke but will do anything to keep his wife and family intact, and four-year old Fish, the youngest child, who likes to wander off and get lost and bring the family face-to-face with its deepest fissures. Surrounding the Byrds is a motley cast of visitors, permanent and transitory, to the Retreat, seeking wisdom from the enigmatic doctor on how to cope in the real world. There is even a crippled writer, Harris, who befriends the children, whose wife is making out with another guest while he likens himself to “a dull moth banging at an unlit lantern.”
On the other side of the spectrum is Raymond, the eighteen year old Ojibway boy who likes white girls and constantly gets into trouble with prejudiced law enforcement officers as a result of this fatal attraction. Raymond snags his girls by being indifferent and remote, partly due to his fear of being arrested, but that cocktail is irresistible to his more privileged girlfriends from the other side of the tracks. His brother Nelson is more outgoing, but as he was once taken away from home and adopted by a white family, Nelson is more cynical about the plight of the Native Indian. Both are likely candidates to be drawn into the Ojibway occupation of the park that is to follow before the summer ends.
Viewed from the perspectives of the children, we see that the adults are all screwed up and are poor role models for their progeny. As Lizzy observes, “most adults wanted what they couldn’t or didn’t have, and they would hurt people to get it.” Yet the sexuality is downplayed while the sensuality is notched up – there is a lot of touching and smelling going on, especially among the young ones.
I found the style distinct: sparse prose, pronouns dropped, dialogue “told” or narrated, and sentences ending on prepositions (the English teacher’s nightmare!)
What disappointed me was that there was a lot of waiting between events and I felt that I had spent my whole summer at this Retreat by the time I ended the novel. There are missed opportunities for drama between Raymond and the cops, when Fish goes “walkabout,” and when Lizzie wanders around in the woods or in town on her own, but they are all downplayed, resolved quickly or ignored. I wonder if that is something about writing a Canadian literary novel and preferring bland. And despite the major portion of the book being dedicated to the inhabitants at the Retreat and to Lizzy’s coming of age, the novel ends with a more tense sequence of events involving Raymond and Nelson. I guess, after all the waiting, some tension was called for, but in the presentation it felt like two different stories were trying to cohabit within the same book, almost like the Indian boy and his white girlfriend trying to find a life together and failing. In that sense, I wondered whether The Retreat was a misnomer and if Two Different Worlds may have been more apt?
April 19, 2011
I appreciated this book but I didn't necessarily like it. Let me explain.
David Bergen is a master of nuance. There are a lot of things happening alongside one another: the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park, Lizzy's coming of age, the Byrd family's disintegration, Raymond and Lizzy's blossoming relationship, a mother's selfishness, Everett's sexual awakening, infidelity, cult mentality, police brutality, racial discrimination, and sad humans all searching for something just beyond their grasp. The Retreat is jam-packed with rich content, all of which mingles well within itself. Deeper within that, layers of nuance emerge to add even more intricacy to the novel, and these layers are so thin you're not even sure you've caught on until the undertone repeats itself later in the narrative. For example, almost all the characters have slight incestuous feelings at some point, whether they emerge in dreams or subconscious associations revealed only to the reader. Nuances like this are scattered throughout the novel, and I was amazed at Bergen's ability to keep all events happening concurrently in addition to maintaining smooth between-the-lines kind of writing.
Despite all this mastery, however, I STILL couldn't like the story. It was beautifully executed but it wasn't compelling. Most of the characters seemed to be standing around waiting for something to happen to them rather than causing the novel's action. Raymond seemed especially passive, letting that asshole cop dump him on an island for nine days, although I can understand this as a device to demonstrate racial oppression. Lizzy let her mother treat her like a nanny, Lewis doesn't seem to care when his wife admits her infidelity, and Harris is just a useless lump who's accepted that his wife has taken a live-in lover. While important, these elements (and others) did nothing to pique my interest in the plot.
I'd like to give this novel a 3.5, and I still consider it a Canadian gem of a book. The fine artistry is definitely there, but that didn't stop The Retreat from being a bit of a slog at times.
David Bergen is a master of nuance. There are a lot of things happening alongside one another: the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park, Lizzy's coming of age, the Byrd family's disintegration, Raymond and Lizzy's blossoming relationship, a mother's selfishness, Everett's sexual awakening, infidelity, cult mentality, police brutality, racial discrimination, and sad humans all searching for something just beyond their grasp. The Retreat is jam-packed with rich content, all of which mingles well within itself. Deeper within that, layers of nuance emerge to add even more intricacy to the novel, and these layers are so thin you're not even sure you've caught on until the undertone repeats itself later in the narrative. For example, almost all the characters have slight incestuous feelings at some point, whether they emerge in dreams or subconscious associations revealed only to the reader. Nuances like this are scattered throughout the novel, and I was amazed at Bergen's ability to keep all events happening concurrently in addition to maintaining smooth between-the-lines kind of writing.
Despite all this mastery, however, I STILL couldn't like the story. It was beautifully executed but it wasn't compelling. Most of the characters seemed to be standing around waiting for something to happen to them rather than causing the novel's action. Raymond seemed especially passive, letting that asshole cop dump him on an island for nine days, although I can understand this as a device to demonstrate racial oppression. Lizzy let her mother treat her like a nanny, Lewis doesn't seem to care when his wife admits her infidelity, and Harris is just a useless lump who's accepted that his wife has taken a live-in lover. While important, these elements (and others) did nothing to pique my interest in the plot.
I'd like to give this novel a 3.5, and I still consider it a Canadian gem of a book. The fine artistry is definitely there, but that didn't stop The Retreat from being a bit of a slog at times.
July 18, 2018
While the writing was ok, the characters were not well developed and the story was all over the place. There really was no clear plot at all. Too bad. I don't think I will bother with anything else he wrote. I prefer a book with an actual story line. This was just one aboriginal boy who was caught up with a white girl, got caught, got (unfairly) punished. Flash-forward a year....he meets another white girl, although this one is not local, she's spending the summer at this "Retreat" with her mentally ill mother, ineffectual father and her three younger brothers. The characters at the Retreat are not well developed nor is there really any clear point to the Retreat. The story takes place in 1973, the summer a group of Ojibway take over a park that is land that was stolen from them by the government of Ontario. There is no clear reason why this was a part of the story.
To sum it up, it's a story mostly about one summer in Kenora ON about a small group of people who meet and interact. No real point to the story and a lot of bits and pieces tossed in apparently at random. I wasted several days on this book.
To sum it up, it's a story mostly about one summer in Kenora ON about a small group of people who meet and interact. No real point to the story and a lot of bits and pieces tossed in apparently at random. I wasted several days on this book.
November 16, 2019
David Bergen is such a masterful writer, and while this is not his most fully realized novel, it is still piercing and essential. Canadians seem to be discovering our deeply imbedded and often lethal racism toward our own indigenous people, but our novelists and other artists have been offering us the truth for many years.
June 18, 2017
Suprisingly, this was a difficult book for me to finish. It is a very slow moving story, set in the 1970's in Kenora, Ontario. As one Goodreads reader aptly said "What disappointed me was that there was a lot of waiting between events and I felt that I had spent my whole summer at this Retreat by the time I ended the novel." But I think that was Bergen's point whose novels are often about the very ordinaryness of life. The Retreat is about the Ojibwe's occupation of Anicinabe Park, a romance between a 17 year old white girl and an Ojibway boy, and a bunch of adults who are dissatisfied with life and seeking answers at a commune-style psychiatric retreat (well it is set in the '70s). I wouldn't offer this up as a first read of David Bergen - but it is as always very well written.
November 3, 2010
Wow, Bergen gets better and better with each novel. This one is my favourite so far, perhaps because it's set in Kenora, ON, a place I know well. Love, love, loved it.
November 10, 2015
This book was a powerful read. I want more of the characters!
September 11, 2017
A beautifully written & compelling book that tells a story in Kenora ,Ontario interweaving the sad circumstances of Raymond Seymour a young Indian man who is abandoned to die on an island on Lake of the Woods when he won't stop his affair with a young white girl, the niece of the local cop. He is rescued after a week by a passing boat, One year later the dysfunctional Byrd family-a depressed mother Norma, ineffectual father Lewis, a 17 yr old girl Lizzie & her 3 younger brothers come to "the Retreat"run by a self-serving ex-chiropractor & cult figure, where the mother hopes to find salvation. Raymond supplies the place with chickens & rabbits, works at a golf course in grounds maintenance & lives in a small cabin in the woods. A love affair develops between Ray & Lizzy, and Nelson Ray's older brother who had been forcibly given to a white family as a child returns after 10 years. This occurs at the time of the Anicinabe standoff between Indians & the white community in which Ray becomes involved. Norma abandons her family, while Ray & Nelson involved in a tussle with the policeman, accidentally knife him. He survives & they attempt to flee but later Ray will get shot by the cop & die & Nelson will end up in jail. The writing is atmospheric & charged &holds the reader's attention throughout.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2019
Beautifully written. An interesting look into the depth of racism and general abuse of power over the First Nations Natives within Canada. I think the sheriffs role in this book really captures you as you hate him. The young Native adults definitely tell you a story of the 60s sweep, general disrepair of the reserve, and the division of “classes”.
The actual retreat is really odd - cult like but I think accurate to some of the “movements” around that time. Some creepy moments with the leader and he families children. I found I wanted to know more about what they all did all day long.
And then you add the mother’s storyline and you have a family in complete turmoil. But all these details are only looked at quickly.
I wish Bergen went into more depth. One of the only books I wish was longer. I needed more.
The actual retreat is really odd - cult like but I think accurate to some of the “movements” around that time. Some creepy moments with the leader and he families children. I found I wanted to know more about what they all did all day long.
And then you add the mother’s storyline and you have a family in complete turmoil. But all these details are only looked at quickly.
I wish Bergen went into more depth. One of the only books I wish was longer. I needed more.
June 23, 2020
Seventeen year old Lizzy Byrd spends the summer of 1974 with her family in a commune in Kenora, Ontario. The novel introduces a plethora of characters and situations that are interesting, but not fully developed, as these subplots seem to have been introduced only for peripheral ambiance.
The book concentrates on the relationship between Lizzy and and a nineteen year old Objibway boy. Raymond Seymour. Disapproval of the inter-racial relationship between the two characters is touched upon, but is downplayed, in comparison to the actions that resulted from Raymond's relationship with another white girl, one year earlier.
Subplots involving infidelity, failing marriages, abandonment, sexual confusion, discrimination, police brutality, relationship issues, etc., tweak the readers' interest but are not fleshed out to their fullest potential.
The book concentrates on the relationship between Lizzy and and a nineteen year old Objibway boy. Raymond Seymour. Disapproval of the inter-racial relationship between the two characters is touched upon, but is downplayed, in comparison to the actions that resulted from Raymond's relationship with another white girl, one year earlier.
Subplots involving infidelity, failing marriages, abandonment, sexual confusion, discrimination, police brutality, relationship issues, etc., tweak the readers' interest but are not fleshed out to their fullest potential.
December 11, 2021
This is more than a story about "a complicated love between a white girl and a native boy". Set in 1974 near the northern Ontario community of Kenora, this 322-page novel published in 2008, brings to the surface "disturbing"cultural clashes that still need to be addressed today.
Bravo to Canadian (Winnipeg-based) writer David Bergen for tackling some sensitive issues and for portraying what appears to be realistic and well-rounded characters. Keep in mind, I am judging this book from my limited 'white female' perspective and I did cringe at one or two stereotypes.
Overall, the writing was impressive and the plot held my attention. Because this is the first book by Bergen that I've read, I will definitely seek some of his other work to see how it compares.
Bravo to Canadian (Winnipeg-based) writer David Bergen for tackling some sensitive issues and for portraying what appears to be realistic and well-rounded characters. Keep in mind, I am judging this book from my limited 'white female' perspective and I did cringe at one or two stereotypes.
Overall, the writing was impressive and the plot held my attention. Because this is the first book by Bergen that I've read, I will definitely seek some of his other work to see how it compares.
August 12, 2022
The coming-of-age story of seventeen-year-old Lizzy and Raymond, an Ojibwe boy a few years older, is set in 1970s Ontario. Although it would seem that their love story is the main storyline, it is not. There are too many characters in the book, and while it is well written and I enjoyed it quite a bit, I would have preferred if Bergen had focused on fewer characters and given them more depth. I didn't care for most of the inhabitants of the Retreat at all. Still, the character of Raymond's brother Nelson, who was forcibly adopted as a child by a Mennonite family, was interesting and could easily have been given more space. A number of characters appeared in the story only to disappear again, and some episodic events seemed lost.
February 14, 2023
Boring! There are many wasted opportunities for real storytelling in this book, but the author never really gets a satisfying narrative going. There are sentences that do not relate to or add to the story in any way and, in fact, they are a distraction. The characters are poorly developed. It is a mystery to me how and/or why an author who is much lauded would think that this book would be of interest to anyone. And what about the editor? Did he/she not have input that might have improved the telling of this story? I am getting tired of reading books like this that seem more like an early draft than a finished product. I initially persisted and got about 2/3 of the way through and then just stopped reading.
February 18, 2019
I thought that this was a very good novel with lots of tension and emotion. As other reviewers below have stated, this novel seemed to have two separate narratives going on which didn't entirely mesh. To me, the First Nations' plot line and characters and the love affair between Lizzy and Raymond are the strongest parts of the book. The story behind the family and the "retreat" came out not as interesting (and to be honest, in parts, I didn't get it -- Lizzy's Mom and Dad were just flaky and far less mature than their children). Nonetheless, this is a wonderful Canadian novel.
September 20, 2018
This story will stay with me for some time. It's so powerful.
It's essentially about a young girl's relationship with Raymond, an Indigenous boy who has had a shit life due to being treated like crap by entitled white people. It is the story of our time but stretches back to the time before, when young children were taken away in the 60's scoop to be raised by complete strangers. This story is haunting in its brutal honesty. Read it.
It's essentially about a young girl's relationship with Raymond, an Indigenous boy who has had a shit life due to being treated like crap by entitled white people. It is the story of our time but stretches back to the time before, when young children were taken away in the 60's scoop to be raised by complete strangers. This story is haunting in its brutal honesty. Read it.
May 29, 2025
I almost quit this book. I think I didn't find these characters, nor the frequent sexual innuendo particularly interesting. But when a certain thing happened around page 100 I had to find out how that turned out, and from there I was in. (Sometimes it pays off to hang in)
Lizzy was the character that held this book. The whole story could have been told from her perspective.
Lizzy was the character that held this book. The whole story could have been told from her perspective.
December 30, 2018
Great book. Bergen is a pretty straight-forward story-teller for the most part. At the end of significant scenes/chapters he slips in a few lines that come across as verse more than prose. It's effective and done artfully.
A sad story told gently.
A sad story told gently.
December 24, 2023
I do not finish books in which the writer is so uncreative that they resort to using animal cruelty as a lame plot device to help us poor, stupid readers understand who is good and who is morally flawed. Do better, David Bergen. Back to the library you go.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2019
Beautifully written, but I had trouble with the way Raymond and Nelson were presented.
April 11, 2022
Loved how this was in a Winnipeg/Canada setting. Needs more Raymond and less of some of the characters. Least favorite was the doctor of them all.
August 15, 2010
This book was good. Very good.
It was such a nice change to have a Canadian book where as I was reading I was like "Oh I've been there!" "Oh yes! I know what you're talking about!" Very neat.
The treatment of Raymond was appalling. Mistreatment of people by police happens way too frequently. They are supposed to be the good guys. And so much of their crimes seem to be against a minority - or since I'm personally changing my view of what the minority is - a person of color. There is no reason for that. It makes me ill.
The relationship between Raymond and Nelson was weird. I find it so weird that Nelson got taken away and Raymond didn't? I was a little unclear as to who took Nelson away - but whatever the reason, you would think they would want both of them. That they just so easily walked away and never came back when one child was gone. And Nelson's semi - gay feelings that poked through . . . Was that in some way connected to him being taken away? A form of acting out? Cuz sometimes it seemed to me that he was not totally into everything. But then at some points I got that he really was into boys and cross dressing - but then felt judged and backed down? And then with Everett. . . . It was interesting and I don't have a solid view on that issue.
The Retreat itself sucked. I was in no way into the story of the other characters at the Retreat. I don't think that was planned as they did spend some time going into the characters that were there. It wasn't as if the author just used the Retreat so that Lizzy could meet Raymond. Maybe because it was a secondary plot he didn't really care that they weren't the greatest story. Not every author can make the background characters interesting as well.
Overall, good. I enjoyed it.
It was such a nice change to have a Canadian book where as I was reading I was like "Oh I've been there!" "Oh yes! I know what you're talking about!" Very neat.
The treatment of Raymond was appalling. Mistreatment of people by police happens way too frequently. They are supposed to be the good guys. And so much of their crimes seem to be against a minority - or since I'm personally changing my view of what the minority is - a person of color. There is no reason for that. It makes me ill.
The relationship between Raymond and Nelson was weird. I find it so weird that Nelson got taken away and Raymond didn't? I was a little unclear as to who took Nelson away - but whatever the reason, you would think they would want both of them. That they just so easily walked away and never came back when one child was gone. And Nelson's semi - gay feelings that poked through . . . Was that in some way connected to him being taken away? A form of acting out? Cuz sometimes it seemed to me that he was not totally into everything. But then at some points I got that he really was into boys and cross dressing - but then felt judged and backed down? And then with Everett. . . . It was interesting and I don't have a solid view on that issue.
The Retreat itself sucked. I was in no way into the story of the other characters at the Retreat. I don't think that was planned as they did spend some time going into the characters that were there. It wasn't as if the author just used the Retreat so that Lizzy could meet Raymond. Maybe because it was a secondary plot he didn't really care that they weren't the greatest story. Not every author can make the background characters interesting as well.
Overall, good. I enjoyed it.
November 20, 2011
Here is another fine novel focused on First Nations people in Ontario and their relationship with non-aboriginal Canadians -- published in the same year as Joseph Boyden's Giller Prize winning "Through Black Spruce." While the framework for Boyden's book is wide and quite diverse, the context here is much more intimate -- the forests and lakes around Kenora, where Raymond Seymour is trying to find himself amidst a threatened Indian culture, the crude and sometimes cruel racism of the local white community and a tentatively loving relationship with Lizzy Byrd, a quietly rebellious girl whose insights and passions come to crystallize the book. Lizzy's efforts to build a loyalty that contrasts with her mother's manic selfishness collide with bitter realities, in a beautifully written story of a harsh time and place.
David Bergen has given us haunting tales in the past, including ""The Time in Between,"" awarded a previous Giller prize. But the writing in this novel has reached a level of strong, hard, straightforward clarity that is matchless. Some of the characters in this novel could have been developed more, such as Lizzy's father, Lewis, and Raymond's grandmother. But that is a minor limitation in a major achievement.
David Bergen has given us haunting tales in the past, including ""The Time in Between,"" awarded a previous Giller prize. But the writing in this novel has reached a level of strong, hard, straightforward clarity that is matchless. Some of the characters in this novel could have been developed more, such as Lizzy's father, Lewis, and Raymond's grandmother. But that is a minor limitation in a major achievement.
March 3, 2012
I had this book on my TBR heap for a long time. I was reluctant to read it in case the author got it all wrong.
Of this author's previous works, I loved The Case of Lena S. I was less enamoured by The Time in Between, but did enjoy it. The stories in Sitting Opposite my Brother were more of a mixed bag for me. Some, especially the last one in the book, I really enjoyed; but many of the others I did not. So, I was a bit concerned that something about this author's work was wearing thin with me. Yet I was aware that The Retreat was set in and around Kenora on Lake of the Woods, the place where I was born and spent most of my childhood (Although I have now spent the majority of my life away from LotW, it is still and always will be "God's country" and home to me.) Further, I knew that the book was set at the time of the occupation of Anicinabe Park, an event that was significant to me at the time it happened and one which has undoubtedly contributed to the formation of my current perspective on aboriginal/non-aboriginal relationships in Canada today. For those reasons I felt compelled to read this book and I really did not want to be disappointed.
---to be continued---
Of this author's previous works, I loved The Case of Lena S. I was less enamoured by The Time in Between, but did enjoy it. The stories in Sitting Opposite my Brother were more of a mixed bag for me. Some, especially the last one in the book, I really enjoyed; but many of the others I did not. So, I was a bit concerned that something about this author's work was wearing thin with me. Yet I was aware that The Retreat was set in and around Kenora on Lake of the Woods, the place where I was born and spent most of my childhood (Although I have now spent the majority of my life away from LotW, it is still and always will be "God's country" and home to me.) Further, I knew that the book was set at the time of the occupation of Anicinabe Park, an event that was significant to me at the time it happened and one which has undoubtedly contributed to the formation of my current perspective on aboriginal/non-aboriginal relationships in Canada today. For those reasons I felt compelled to read this book and I really did not want to be disappointed.
---to be continued---
December 7, 2017
This was my second read of "The Retreat" and I probably enjoyed it more the second time although that could be because I'm a big fan of David Bergen. He's definitely one of Canada's top authors and each novel is so different.
There are a lot of things happening in this novel: the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park outside of Kenora in the 70's, a teenager's coming of age nd her blossoming relationship with a local boy, a family's disintegration, a mother's selfishness, a young boy's sexual awakening, infidelity, cult mentality, police brutality, racial discrimination, and more.
I usually don't care for novels that have several narrators but it worked in the Retreat. I felt like I knew what it would feel like to be a teenager and dragged from my home in Calgary to a rural commune outside of Kenora for the summer.
Sadly the Ojibway occupation of the park took place in the 70's but I feel that not much has changed.
There are a lot of things happening in this novel: the Ojibway occupation of Anicinabe Park outside of Kenora in the 70's, a teenager's coming of age nd her blossoming relationship with a local boy, a family's disintegration, a mother's selfishness, a young boy's sexual awakening, infidelity, cult mentality, police brutality, racial discrimination, and more.
I usually don't care for novels that have several narrators but it worked in the Retreat. I felt like I knew what it would feel like to be a teenager and dragged from my home in Calgary to a rural commune outside of Kenora for the summer.
Sadly the Ojibway occupation of the park took place in the 70's but I feel that not much has changed.
July 19, 2012
The interesting thing about this book was that it was not something I would ever have chose to read, as it was something I read for a book report. I had to write an essay afterwards and summarize the story, and so I really became familiar with it. The part I found odd was the fact that many of the characters are sexually attracted to one another - despite their age - and at first this turned me off a bit as unrealistic. As I neared the end of the book, I began to develop a new perspective, and that is - what if this is in fact realistic? There are no glorified lives of the characters; everyone has their own problems they're facing. So overall, I thought this was a worthwhile read.
March 28, 2016
Such a dark story.... Anishnaabe brothers separated by the Sixties scoop, parents still living the "dream" of communes, sexual predators, and innocence caught up in all this mess. I found it an interesting read, and of course, very well written. Albeit its inherent darkness, it has a compelling quality that makes you want to read on to see if anyone at all gets the big picture and actually resolves any issues.
January 29, 2020
3.5 stars - A very well-written book but it didn't "grab me" the way many books do. The subject matter was interesting, the characters were really very solid - excellently formed - but it didn't get me as invested as I'd hoped it would. There's no doubt David Bergen is an excellent writer. This particular novel just didn't do it for me. I have several other Bergen novels that I know will draw me in. So ... onward!
August 9, 2009
This story takes place in my home town which greatly added to the interest of the book for me. I would have given it 3 stars but the familiarity of the background story (the occupation), places and people was fascinating to me thus raising the book to 4 stars. A good read.
August 27, 2012
Bergen is an excellent, evocative writer. I can't help wonder about his taking on of the aboriginal voice/experience, though he has done it so sensitively. I guess one could ask the same thing about his or any author taking on a different voice. Does this make me racist in some way?
August 26, 2016
I liked this rather depressing novel set in seventies Kenora. Even though it could have used some better character development and it left a lot to the imagination, I felt it was probably accurately portrayed First Nations and white interactions at the time.
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